The technical specifications of the Zeiss 35mm 1.4 are really impressive for a 35 mm lens. Only Rokinon and Samyang can offer similar lenses. The build quality is outstanding and the focus ring is amazingly precise. Unfortunately, this lens doesn’t have auto focus, which may limit its potential market. The price itself will also restrict this lens to very few potential buyers: $1843.

In term of optical performance, we expected a lot from such a lens at such a premium price, and we were a bit disappointed.

Zeiss 35mm 1.4 versus Samyang 35mm F1.4 on an APS-C

In comparing these lenses on an APS-C, it’s interesting to note that with the smaller pixels of the APS-C sensor, the 2 lenses are much closer in term of performance. It will be interesting to see how these lenses behave on the new generation of 24-MPix APS-C sensors.

You can find all the Carl Zeiss lenses on DxOMark here, along with the previous reviews of Zeiss lenses here.

Further readings for the Carl Zeiss Distagon T 35mm f/1.4 ZF2: a premium Zeiss wide-angle lens put to the test

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Comments

Samyang 35mm/1.4 vs Zeiss 35/1.4 vs Zeiss 35/2

As tested on the Nikon D3X the Samyang has a much higher score than the other two according to DXO mainly due to higher resolution and uniformity over the whole image field. Yet, looking at the use case scores - the star ratings - the Zeiss 35mm/1.4 has a higher rating for landscape than the other two lenses. It doesn't make sense to me.